Bradford 14 - 35 St Helens

Cup holders St Helens became the first team to secure a place at the new Wembley with a typically confident performance against a Bradford side who must be sick of the sight of them. The Bulls have lost to their past six Challenge Cup games and have never managed to beat Saints in any major final during that time.

Although they had their moments in this competitive semi-final, they never really looked like overcoming a team who always seemed to be able to turn it on whenever they looked in trouble. St Helens took all the chances that came their way in ruthless fashion, by contrast the Bulls probably had their opponents under pressure for far longer periods, but were rarely able to take advantage.

Daniel Anderson, the St Helens coach, admitted: 'There wasn't a huge amount between us, one or two big tackles, one or two bounces of the ball that went our way. I thought we handled the big plays better and defended our line brilliantly. When we made breaks we punished them.'

Saints got off to a terrific start when Leon Pryce probed down the right before play was switched to the left with two long passes. The last one, delivered by Sean Long, found Willie Talau in space and when Marcus St Hilaire jumped out of the defensive line, it gave the centre the opportunity to touch down.

Long converted from the touchline, but Saints found themselves defending furiously for the next 15 minutes as the Bulls hammered at their line. After withstanding several repeat sets of tackles, Paul Deacon found a way through when his neat grubber kick was snapped up by James Evans.

It was midway through the half before St Helens mounted another attack, but it produced another try. They were gifted possession when Evans knocked-on inside his own half on the first tackle and once again the Bulls defence was tested down the left. Talau was halted close to the line, but he managed to get squeeze a pass out, enabling Francis Meli to dart over and make it 10-4.

A succession of penalties set Bradford on the offensive again, but they could not find a way through, although they were disappointed to be penalised for obstruction when Ben Harris had a clear run to the line.

Having soaked up the pressure, Saints struck again, James Roby breaking down the middle before smuggling the ball away to Paul Wellens. The full-back fed Jon Wilkin who slipped a sublime pass out for Matt Gidley to score. With the final play of the first half Long landed a drop goal from 45 metres to send St Helens in at the interval with a 17-4 lead.

The Bulls began the second half on the attack and a bullet pass from Terry Newton allowed Tame Tupou to make up for some earlier mistakes by crashing over in the corner.

But when prop Matt James lost possession from the re-start under his own posts, slick play from Keiron Cunningham and Long saw teenage forward Paul Clough score his side's fourth try. Long made it 23-8 with the conversion and Bradford were facing an uphill struggle. They had plenty of chances, but far too often they lacked composure. However, with 14 minutes remaining a St Helens error deep in their own half threw them a lifeline. After winning repeat sets of tackles, Joe Vagana blasted over and Deacon reduced the arrears to nine points with the conversion.

From the re-start they attacked with venom and were looking dangerous until a kick from Iestyn Harris went straight to Pryce. The stand-off proved unstoppable on a 70-metre sprint to the line and after Long's conversion, there was no way back for the Bulls, Mike Bennett wrapping things up with a late try, improved by Wellens.

Steve McNamara, the Bradford coach, said: 'Our catch and pass was probably just slightly off. At 10-4 we had a try disallowed for obstruction and it was a huge call not to go to the video referee at that stage of the game.

'The last thing you want to be doing against Saints is chasing the game. We had to probably throw a little bit more caution to the wind in the second half.'